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Preventing censorship like the censorship of X in Brazil


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2024 Sep 3, 2:10pm   204 views  18 comments

by Patrick   ➕follow (60)   💰tip   ignore  

There is a need to be able to publish at least short messages worldwide such that censorship is impossible.

Here is an idea for the simplest possible system that works without requiring a domain name or an SSL certificate, both of which are vulnerabilities to censorship:

The writer generates an ssh keypair like this: ssh-keygen -t rsa -b 4096 -C "your_email@something.com"

Writer writes message, which can be arbitrarily large and complex, but needs to be a single file.

Writer timestamps message, includes public key, and signs message with private key.

Writer publishes message by uploading it via Bittorrent.

Users who know the writer can search for the writer's public key on Bittorrent, and thus see all of that writer's messages.

Reader checks that the message was signed with private key corresponding to included public key, so that writers cannot be spoofed and messages cannot be edited.

But how to know the real-world identity of the writer? That seems difficult, but perhaps it is for the best, so that anonymity is preserved.

To reply, one need simply refer to the writer's public key and the timestamp.

The writer of the original post could create a stream of conversation by choosing to search for and republish replies. This would give that writer some measure of control over the conversation.

Comments 1 - 18 of 18        Search these comments

1   RWSGFY   2024 Sep 3, 2:26pm  

With total anonimity there is no accountability if any kind. Even as simple as hit to one's reputation. If somebody said something false or stupid under his own name his reputation suffers and he's not gonna be taken as seriously as before (see Musk and geopolitics or McGregor and strategic military analysis, etc.). If stupid or false shit is spread anonymously even this small deterrent (which doesn't even work on everybody) disappears and the interwebz is flooded with supid/false shit. The latter is not hypothetical - it's the reality now. Imagine if there were no brands and all goods were being sold w/o any nsme attached to them: how would you know what NOT to buy next time?
2   Patrick   2024 Sep 3, 2:29pm  

True, it would be up to the public to judge what is stupid and/or false, not up to Alexandre de Moraes or similar criminals.
3   Ingrid   2024 Sep 3, 2:46pm  

this sounds like abracadabra to me. I cannot even make a second email account! heck, most of the time I cannot even find my files on my computer... so much easier if you have kids who grew up with electronics. I'm curious whether the Brazilian Substackers can still access everything.
If you want to do this hush hush thing someone will have to explain me in first grade English how to do this !
4   Patrick   2024 Sep 3, 2:48pm  

@Ingrid

If someone put the work into creating an app for this, you would be able to view messages on your phone or laptop without doing any work beyond installing the app. It would be something like a browser, pretty simple to use.

More advanced users could start using this method today by manually using ssh and Bittorrent.
5   Ingrid   2024 Sep 3, 2:50pm  

Ah thank you, sigh. It is sad to have a head that cannot grasp this.
6   Patrick   2024 Sep 3, 2:53pm  

It's not really hard, just requires a lot of background reading that most people don't have the time to do.
7   Patrick   2024 Sep 3, 3:00pm  

RWSGFY says


Imagine if there were no brands and all goods were being sold w/o any name attached to them: how would you know what NOT to buy next time?


@RWSGFY

There would be brands though, namely public keys.

Everyone would get to know the good public keys over time, the ones created by good writers.

And already well-known writers like Greenwald, Taibbi, and Berenson could simply publish their public keys on their websites to link their uncensorable Bittorrent content to their real names.
8   mell   2024 Sep 3, 3:08pm  

I see no problem with anonymity. Also people could still choose to publish their names (or a handle/brand/moniker at least) if they wanted to. It's a good idea
9   FortwayeAsFuckJoeBiden   2024 Sep 3, 3:12pm  

US has censorship just the same as others. most people won’t get around it. Twitter banned in many countries because our intel agencies used it to spread anti government revolts. Shit will be next level with AI being able to outargue anything.

Guys i miss old internet when it was just nerdy guys on it. before all the manipulation and governments and corporate trying to corner and control it. it was a better time. nothing was there, and assholes weren’t there. and i miss that.
10   Patrick   2024 Sep 3, 3:29pm  

I think most people could get around censorship if some user-friendly apps were created using the above method.

The apps would of course be banned from the two globo-homo app stores, but people could side-load the app onto their phones, as they say.

I expect that governments would then work on tracking who exactly is reading or writing politically incorrect content, and coming to their doors with guns, the way it is now in the UK. But I think Bittorrent already has some ways to obfuscate who is using it.
11   NewGuy   2024 Sep 3, 4:01pm  

I’d do Usenet instead of BitTorrent. It’s designed to handle large numbers of messages.
12   Eric Holder   2024 Sep 3, 4:01pm  

Patrick says

I think most people could get around it if some user-friendly apps were created using the above method.

The apps would of course be banned from the two globo-homo app stores, but people could side-load the app onto their phones, as they say.


Nah, it should run in a browser.
13   Patrick   2024 Sep 3, 4:07pm  

NewGuy says

I’d do Usenet instead of BitTorrent. It’s designed to handle large numbers of messages.


True about the number of messages, but I think Usenet runs on specific servers which are easy to identify and shut down, while BitTorrent has no central servers.

Eric Holder says

Nah, it should run in a browser.


I'd agree if I could figure out how to make that work. I suppose you could do the public/private key thing with javascript, but then you'd have to sign the javascript somehow to prevent tampering, making a kind of chicken-and-egg problem. Also, browsers hit only specific servers. That's why there is no way to do BitTorrent directly in a browser. Correct me if there is.
14   Misc   2024 Sep 3, 10:58pm  

X won't even give me an account.

They are as blatantly pro-censorship as anyone.
15   Patrick   2024 Sep 4, 6:54am  

Yes, I think that's why Elon hates Substack, which so far seems much more open.
18   RWSGFY   2024 Dec 24, 7:54pm  

YouTube traffic in Russia has plummeted to just 20 percent of its “normal levels” in recent days, a leading Russian expert said, describing the situation as a “de facto” blocking of the video-sharing platform in the country.

Mikhail Klimarev, director of the nonprofit organization Society for the Protection of the Internet, said in a Telegram post on December 23 that YouTube traffic in Russia has dropped to one-fifth of the levels recorded before the authorities reportedly began to deliberately slow down the service in July.

“Google’s monitoring service currently shows 8.5 traffic points from Russia. Before the “slowdown,” it was 40 points. This means it’s now at roughly 20 percent of normal levels,” Klimarev wrote on his Telegram channel, ZaTelecom, adding: “YouTube is de facto blocked in Russia.”

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